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“No Such Thing as Coincidence”

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Submitted by Sunni on Wed, 2007-09-12 08:40. | |

When V uttered a similar phrase in the movie V for Vendetta, I was skeptical of the dismissal of coincidence. It seemed to me that doing so implicitly admits of some higher power, doing at least a little string-pulling in our lives. And of course, stubborn, independent snake that I am, I don’t much care for that idea.


On the other scale (or hand, if you lean that way), I have long appreciated the wisdom of the phrase, “When the student is ready, the master will appear”, and is that not just a selective restatement of the overarching idea?

Anyway, I have been more open to the idea of things not being coincidental; perhaps that alone means that I see more interwoven threads ... or perhaps I’m seeing interweaving where there isn’t any. Thoughts are subject to Heisenberg’s principle too, after all.

Anyway, upon reading Butler Shaffer’s essay, Sy Leon, R.I.P., I was not as surprised as I might have been just a few months ago to see a mention of Jiddu Krishnamurti. I’m currently reading a book [which explains my prolonged absence here, at least in part] that has quoted from his works more than once. And the idea that struck me most strongly happens to be quoted at the top of that foundation’s page:

It is the truth that frees, not your effort to be free.

Still trying to weave this all together in a coherent way, but I feel like I’m getting closer ...

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K

Submitted by Presto on Wed, 2007-09-12 11:13.

Krishnamurti's an interesting philosopher. I have his complete works on cd-rom. He is one of the few people to voluntarily walk away from power. He was brought up from childhood to be the leader of the Theosophists, as the predicted World Teacher. The day that he was placed in charge of the Order of the Star, he dissolved the sect with what I consider to be one of the great speeches in history. A favorite quote:

I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or coerce people along any particular path. If you first understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to organize a belief. A belief is purely an individual matter, and you cannot and must not organize it. If you do, it becomes dead, crystallized; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion, to be imposed on others.

This is what everyone throughout the world is attempting to do. Truth is narrowed down and made a plaything for those who are weak, for those who are only momentarily discontented. Truth cannot be brought down, rather the individual must make the effort to ascend to it. You cannot bring the mountain-top to the valley....

K's philosophy has been a major influence in the development of my own libertarian philosophy. I'm glad that I'm not the only one.

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Oops!

Submitted by Sunni on Wed, 2007-09-12 12:03.

I don’t know how I made the misnake of thinking K was female; I’ve corrected my errant pronoun.

That’s a dense quotation—and from an excellent speech. Here are the parts that spoke to me most:

No man from outside can make you free; nor can organised worship, nor the immolation of yourselves for a cause, make you free; nor can forming yourselves into an organisation, nor throwing yourselves into work, make you free. ....

Again, you have the idea that only certain people hold the key to the Kingdom of Happiness. No one holds it. No one has the authority to hold that key. That key is your own self, and in the development and the purification and in the incorruptibility of that self alone is the Kingdom of Eternity....

Thank you so much for pointing us to that speech, Presto!

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On Coincidence

Submitted by The Shadow on Wed, 2007-09-12 12:18.

For the last year or so, I've been thinking about this sort of thing along the lines posited by the philosophy of Brand Blanshard (who was admired by Rand, and as a rationalist could hardly be called a mystic).

According to Blanshard, the Universe is an Absolute that is shot through with interconnected meaning, and the mind is the vehicle by which these paths of meaning are comprehended. Put in the way it sounds a bit similar to Kabbalism, but its actually a form of Spinozism.

Colin Wilson often spoke in his books of the phenomenon you're describing, and I myself have experienced it time and again.

For a synopsis of Blanshard's basic view, you can go here

To my knowledge, few people have explored the implications of his thought along these lines, and I would certainly like to pursue the subject in future writings.

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no room for luck

Submitted by Shaun on Wed, 2007-09-12 15:15.

I don't believe in luck, or coincidence - I see everything as interconnected, in one fashion or another, and the higher power you refer to in everything. Hence, no need for religions or other arbiters of truth each pushing their own futile agendas for power and control. Some good books to read are 'The Holographic Universe' and 'The Intention Experiment'.

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Everything is Connected?

Submitted by enemyofthestate on Sun, 2007-09-16 17:20.

There is a mathematically pretty interpretation of QM called the Ithaca Interpretation (What is quantum mechanics trying to tell us?) that describe the universe as a system of correlations between systems. It maintains that the only meaningful subjects of QM are the correlations among different parts of the physical world. Correlations are fundamental and objective. They are the physical reality; what they correlate is not. There is no absolute state of being but only correlations between subsystems.

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